Northern Trust Corp Increases Holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Northern Trust Corp increased its position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN - Free Report) by 20.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,708,495 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock after purchasing an additional 286,765 shares during the quarter. Northern Trust Corp owned approximately 0.89% of Garmin worth $352,394,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Garmin in the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd boosted its holdings in Garmin by 864.3% in the fourth quarter. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd now owns 135 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 121 shares in the last quarter. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Garmin in the fourth quarter worth $29,000. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. bought a new position in shares of Garmin during the fourth quarter valued at $37,000. Finally, Kentucky Trust Co purchased a new position in shares of Garmin in the 4th quarter worth about $41,000. 81.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Garmin news, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 7,202 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $227.14, for a total transaction of $1,635,862.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 149,525 shares in the company, valued at $33,963,108.50. The trade was a 4.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, VP Susan Lyman sold 2,829 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $215.51, for a total value of $609,677.79. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 8,432 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,817,180.32. This represents a 25.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 24,342 shares of company stock valued at $5,486,094. Company insiders own 19.54% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on GRMN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Garmin from $220.00 to $215.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Tigress Financial raised their price target on shares of Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Barclays lowered their price objective on Garmin from $188.00 to $152.00 and set an "underweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Garmin from $159.00 to $172.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Garmin currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $194.80.

Garmin Trading Down 1.4 %

GRMN stock traded down $2.61 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $187.54. The stock had a trading volume of 162,561 shares, compared to its average volume of 872,112. The firm has a market cap of $36.13 billion, a PE ratio of 25.67, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.99. The stock's 50 day moving average is $203.01 and its two-hundred day moving average is $207.10. Garmin Ltd. has a 52 week low of $158.38 and a 52 week high of $246.50.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.61 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.62 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.50 billion. Garmin had a net margin of 22.42% and a return on equity of 19.31%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.42 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Investors of record on Friday, March 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.90 per share. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.92%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. Garmin's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.37%.

Garmin Company Profile

Garmin Ltd. designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and distributes a range of wireless devices worldwide. Its Fitness segment offers running and multi-sport watches; cycling products; smartwatch devices; scales and monitors; and fitness accessories. This segment also provides Garmin Connect and Garmin Connect Mobile, which are web and mobile platforms where users can track and analyze their fitness, activities and workouts, and wellness data; and Connect IQ, an application development platform.